Race Against Time
by TheNextDahl
Summary: S6:E3 When a group of alien thugs rob a bank, the gang discover that there was more in the vault than just money, there was the detonator of a bomb in the earth's core...
1. Part One

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: RACE AGAINST TIME- PART ONE

Rani woke up and dressed quicker than ever. Today was the day, after twenty years, that her parents had said she could finally have the money from her savings bank account. She excitedly rushed downstairs, had beans on toast, got her pin number, and zoomed down into town. Clyde met her on the corner near the supermarket, and they strolled down to the bank together. After twenty minutes in a queue, Rani finally reached the desk. She beamed an excited smile at Clyde, who was slumped in a chair across the room. He managed and unenthusiastic thumbs up in return. The woman behind the desk finally spun her chair around to face Rani.

"Yes miss?" But as Rani replied, the sound of smashing glass drowned out her voice. Dozens of sharp screams filled the room.

"GET DOWN!" A deep voice shouted suddenly. Everyone dropped to the floor without hesitation. Rani raised her head an inch to get a glimpse of the voice's owner. But she got a good enough look as one of his henchman pointed his huge, clearly alien gun in Rani's face. She looked up. The man was covered completely in black metal armour, with a black-and-grey helmet and a red glass pane over his eyes. They all looked the same. There were seven of them, all looking as vicious as one another.

"WE SAID GET DOWN!" The one pointing the gun at Rani bellowed. She whimpered and lay on the floor quietly, silently fearing she was drawing too much attention to herself. As the thugs (As Rani had nicknamed them) moved on, four of them stayed in the room, guns ready. Clyde shot a look at Rani, then looked around the room, and stealthily crawled over to lie next to Rani.

"Rani! They're not human! Look at their guns! And they're too bulky!" He whispered urgently.

"Clyde! That's rude, they might just be fat people!" Rani growled. A thug was staring at them, so she calmed instantly. Clyde looked under the desk they were lying next to. Behind it was the woman who was trying to serve Rani, shaking like a leaf, gun in her hand. Clyde slipped his arm under the desk and took the gun. He leapt to his feet, clutching Rani's hand and dragging her up.

"I'll shoot!" Clyde screamed at the thugs. "I swear I will shoot!" Rani was petrified. She wasn't the only one too, as most of the people on the ground were more scared that there was another gun in the room. Instead of taking any notice to Clyde, the thugs raised their larger, and most likely more powerful guns, right at him. But only three were there, stood in the row wielding their weapons. The fourth had snook up behind Clyde, and snatched Rani, holding her by her wrists, gun to her head. She screamed. Tears screamed down her face and she was genuinely terrified.

"CLYDE!" She cried. But he was helpless, and stuck in a very discombobulating dilemma indeed. Rani was probably going to die either way, and his own chances of survival were very low. So, he took drastic measures. He rose the gun slowly to his head, closed his eyes, and closing his fingers ever so slowly over the trigger…

Before Clyde managed to commit the irreversible deed, police burst through the doors, the glass of which was shattered all over the bank. Their pistols were raised high in the air, but the thugs had disappeared without a trace. As Clyde was the only one with a gun, they jumped to conclusions.

"Put the gun down or we'll blast your insignificant brains out!" They screamed at Clyde, who dropped the gun immediately.

"Look it wasn't me!" Clyde shouted back, however dozens of police officers didn't seem to believe him. They fired a few bullets, which Clyde dodged energetically, until everyone who witnessed the thugs shouted.

"It wasn't him! It wasn't him!" All of them wailed at various times within seconds. The police lowered their guns slowly, still wary of Clyde's legitimacy. After a few hours, Clyde and Rani finally arrived back at the attic. Sarah-Jane, Luke and Sky were talking on webcam to Maria.

"Sarah Jane!" Rani shouted breathlessly, as she had sprinted back from the bank. "There's been a robbery, aliens!" Even Maria, who didn't catch much of it, shared the bewildered look that the rest of the gang were sporting. After an hour of explaining from Clyde and Rani, Sarah Jane began her investigation. She managed to use Mr Smith to hack the bank's CCTV and witness the events for herself. After they'd seen the footage, and Clyde's almost-suicide, there was an elephant in the room. No one talked about the fact that Clyde had attempted to attempt suicide. They were all focused on Mr Smith, who was scanning his alien directory files for the name of the alien that had robbed the bank. They were an exclusive alien army called the Horde of the Great Ruby, only seven of whom existed, and Mr Smith did his own thing and video called them without taking any notice from the five people shutting at him and demanding him to cancel it. The call connected and the seven thugs stood and glared at each one of the five of them thoroughly in unison.

"Well, well, well. So you're the Horde of the Great Ruby." Sarah began sternly. "Why ever would you steal from a human bank? Surely human money is worth nothing to you?"

"Because the bank had more than money!" The thug in the middle announced. The seven figures moved away quickly, revealing a red ruby the size of a small bookcase with a clock infixed in the middle. Mr Smith's screen returned to his general Xylock background, and Sarah looked on in horror. Tears streamed down her face. Suddenly she looked ill. Very ill indeed.

"Sarah Jane?" Everyone remembered that Maria was still on webcam, and she too was witnessing Sarah's breakdown. Sarah replied shakily.

"The ruby. Oh no no no, this had to be a bad dream! The ruby. It's a bomb! There's a bomb in the centre of the Earth and once that Ruby has been activated the world has twenty four hours to live. This is it! They've activated it! Not to worry anyone, of course, but we're all going to die…"


	2. Part Two

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: RACE AGAINST TIME- PART TWO

Nobody spoke. The gang had slumped to the ground in disbelief. Sarah's hands were twitching uncontrollably, as if she'd gone mad. Mr Smith's screen switched off and went black. A clock appeared in the middle. 23:26:18. And that was the time they had to save the world. Rani rose from the floor. Clyde and Luke followed.

"Mr Smith. Where are the horde now?" She inquired. But she had no reply. "Mr Smith? Mr Smith?" But there was no other sound in the room but the ticking of the ever decreasing numbers on Mr Smith's screen. Luke turned to look at Sarah Jane. He kneeled down and whispered to her.

"Look mum, we'll stop it. We'll sort it out, okay? You just stay here, you're going to be absolutely fine, I promise." He announced determinedly. He, Clyde, Rani and Sky then walked down the stairs. They reached the path and stopped.

"Okay, so, what's the plan?" Rani asked.

"Right. We split up. Rani and Sky together and me and Clyde together. Then we'll search for the horde and if there's no luck after five hours then we report back here and see if Mr Smith can make a video call. Right, go!" He stated heroically. The gang split up and darted in opposite directions. The tedious search went on for a while, until three hours later Clyde and Luke made a shocking discovery. They were walking casually finding nothing, until Luke suddenly sprinted across the road, down and straight down an alleyway into a brick wall dead-end. He simply knocked on the wall and it slid away, revealing the darkness ahead. Clyde scrambled in his pockets for his phone, however Luke crept straight into the abyss ahead. Clyde stuffed his phone back in to his pocket and followed him curiously. Luke gasped. Red light seeped through the darkness. They emerged in a lit room. The bomb was laid on the floor. 19:34:12. Luke hurried over and began examining the ruby. Clyde picked up his phone and called Rani.

"Rani, we've found it! The alleyway near the park!" He exclaimed breathlessly.

"We'll be right there!" Rani shouted and hung up. Clyde turned to see Luke stunned. He had a sticker in his hand. Which he'd peeled from the clock. Now, the clock read; 01:12:04. One hour and twelve minutes left.

Clyde was on his phone instantly.

"Rani, forget that. No alleyway. Just run, go straight to Sarah Jane!" He demanded strongly. Luke had smashed the ruby and revealed the detonator inside.

"Clyde!" Luke snapped, "We've got to destroy this detonator!"

Rani and Sky hurried down Bannerman Road. They approached the driveway with horror when they saw Sarah Jane's door wide open, looking like it had been kicked in. Rani and Sky stumbled in concernedly. A broken vase, a flipped table.

"Sarah Jane?" Rani called. No reply. She darted into the living room. Flipped chair, broken table. Rani backed out, clutching Sky's hand and sprinting up the stairs. Broken photo frames, items strewn everywhere.

"SARAH JANE?" Rani bellowed, petrified. Sky was speechless, there were no words that could match up to the undying fear pulsing through her veins. They reached the door of the attic, which too was wide open. They could hear heaving breathing, shaky and wheezy.

"Sarah Jane?" Rani whispered. A few seconds silence, then a figure dived on top of her. Her hair was wiry and knotted, her eyes were pierced with fear, yet she was still recognizable from their last encounter. It was Sarah Jane.

"Mum!" Sky bawled.

"Sarah Jane!" Rani cried.

Sarah jumped up from Rani, who fumbled to her feet, Sarah eyed them individually, leaning forward like a mad old woman.

"Go! Run you stupid children! The bomb!" She hissed.

"Clyde and Luke went." Sky replied.

"No! Go! It'll take all of you! The bond!" She insisted.

"Bond?" Rani asked discombobulatedly.

"Yes. The bond. Sit down and I'll explain." After a few moments of waiting, Sky and Rani realised they weren't getting chairs and slumped to the floor.

"The bomb is called the Children of Time bomb. Years ago, The Doctor and his old friends were reunited to stop Davros and The Daleks. Afterwards, he led us from the TARDIS one by one and implanted with DNA which linked us to the bomb. The Doctor knew he could trust us with the DNA, so that's why we got it. Anyway, now the bomb's been activated, it's draining power from me and the other 'Children of Time'. That's why I'm weak. Frail. Mad. But there's one unique bond that can stop it. Friendship. Obviously, me and the Children of Time must use our friendship as power, but we need more to stop it. Closer friends, best friends, people I would die for. So, you Rani, Sky, Luke and Clyde all need to be there to stop the bomb." She continued. She poked around the door to check Mr Smith's screen. 00:04:19. "You have four minutes! Go!" Rani and Sky didn't need warning further. They pounded down the stairs and were at the park within a minute. 00:03:04. They took a moment to find the alleyway. 00:02:26. They found the alleyway and ran down it as fast as a cheetah. 00:02:16. They grabbed each others hands. They explained to Clyde and Luke and joined their hands into the circle. 00:00:43. It took a while, but they could feel it. The power surging inside them. The bomb. They had it in them, but could they make it in time? 00:00:13. 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...

A huge beam of energy shot from the centre of them. They fell to the floor.

"Clyde! Look at the bomb! Did we make it?" Luke commanded.

"Flipping hell!" Clyde exclaimed.

"Well?" Rani snapped.

"A second!" Clyde shouted. "We stopped the bomb with a second to go!"

When they returned to 13 Bannerman Road, everything was back to normal and in place. Sky and Rani decided not to tell anyone what had happened to Sarah Jane, and instead returned to their normal lives. Well, as normal as you can get when you're an alien fighting quintet!


End file.
